Saturday 31st October 2009

Mens 1sts

Aylesbury Men's 1st XI travelled to the heart of West London to face old rivals Sunbury in a real six pointer at the bottom of the still early season league table.

On a beautiful sunny day Aylesbury looked sharp in the initial exchanges, with everyone working hard and closing the game down. The intensity Aylesbury started with though soon began to become patchy, and allowed Sunbury to gradually get their key players into the game. With Greenlee and skipper Gregory working hard in midfield the game looked evenly matched. Keeper Skinner, returning to the net, looked rarely troubled for the first half, and with man of the match debutant Ferguson at left back holding firm alongside the recently established defensive partnership of Pridgeon, Austin and Quinn, Aylesbury deserved the scoreless draw at half time.

Going into the second half things started to go wrong, when the Sunbury centre midfield found himself free of the otherwise excellent coverage of the pitch by Penson and Usherwood to slot home a scrappy goal. A second followed shortly afterwards as mistakes began to creep into the Aylesbury play. Upfront Hignell and Spencer caused some problems still though for Sunbury and before the end, the fighting spirit of Aylesbury was rewarded when the youngest player in the Aylesbury side, Ollie Patterson, slotted home a fine finish for a consolation goal.

Aylesbury are at home next week hoping to get their winning ways back against Ashford.

Mens 2nds

The Men's 2nd XI played host to top of the table City of Oxford. The match was very tight from the start with the visitors having most of the possession but they failed to break down the well organised Aylesbury defence. Gradually Aylesbury began to get into the game with the central midfield pairing of Will Fulwood and skipper Kevin Bond breaking up Oxford's play and creating a number of attacking opportunities. Aylesbury eventually forced a couple of short corners and from the second of these Kevin Bond followed up his own first shot to hammer the rebound past the Oxford keeper. Aylesbury now began to dominate the game and were looking forward to going in at half time with a slim lead, when Oxford broke away and for once got behind the Aylesbury defence and a hard cross was deflected into the Aylesbury goal.

In the second half Oxford came out the strongest and for most of the first 20 minutes were camped in the Aylesbury half but the tight marking and organisation of Aylesbury 2nds saw off most attacks. When City of Oxford did get through the strong tackling of Andy Hughes and the aggressive goalkeeping of Wayne Scott kept them at bay. As Oxford began to tire they were repeatedly being pushed back by the surging runs of man of the match Nick Thomas and Aylesbury once again looked more likely to score. With just 10 minutes remaining a searching pass from Kevin Bond found Steve Elliott in space in the D and from a very tight angle he flicked the ball past the Oxford keeper to put Aylesbury 2-1 ahead. It was difficult to tell who was most surprised at the ball going into the net – the scorer, the Oxford keeper or Aylesbury's delighted supporters. This goal seemed to drain Oxford of much of their fight and Aylesbury held on comfortably to the end, for their fourth successive win, to go joint 1st in the division with close neighbours Wycombe.

Mens 5ths

A resilient Aylesbury 5th XI and a strong West Hampstead side played out a competitive encounter in North London. West Hampstead started the stronger side and took the lead early in the game, however Aylesbury were able to resist further first half attacks and started to create incisive moves of their own. Aylesbury leveled the score after a swift passing move left Jack Rolfe to score from close range. The second half mirrored the first with the hosts conjuring two converted short corner goals in quick succession but Aylesbury re-grouped with some effective team play and were soon on the offensive. Rolfe, Fowler and Collins proved a handful for the Hampstead backs and Aylesbury were unlucky to have a short corner goal of their own denied by the umpire. The pressure was maintained and a converted penalty flick kept Aylesbury in the game to the end. Final score was 3-2 to West Hampstead. Another tough game awaits Aylesbury next weekend against Brunel University who have had 6-nil, 9-nil and 7-nil wins recently.